Of depressing days and a perfect Espresso
by EmmaGreyjoy
Summary: Her life wasn't as good as she had planned it to be: she felt lonely. Every Sunday was a reminder of how she had no one but herself and her kneazle.


**Of depressing days and a perfect Espresso**

Sundays were the most awful day of the week. It was the day you woke up alone in your bed, even if the day before you had been with someone on top of you. It was the day you looked in the mirror and saw nothing but a shadow of yourself, with blurred mascara and bags under your eyes. Sundays were the days you could go out and see families or couples having a good time together, while you had nothing but your owl waiting with letters from work demanding your attention. Sundays were _depressing_.

Still, Cho got up, put on her white slippers and made her bed with a flick of her wand. She waved it again and the clothes from last night went to the laundry basket, the shoes cleaning themselves before going to the expanded trunk where she kept them.

"_I should get a house elf"_ she thought, but dismissed the idea quickly. A house elf would get restless in her tiny flat, where she was the only one making a mess. _"Only you, Cho, as it always had been. At your thirty-four, you should have already found a boyfriend"_

During weekdays she never thought like that: she had too much work to worry about a boyfriend; and she could always go to a club on Saturday nights after dinner with her friends. But then Sunday came and the lonely part of her heart ached for a lover.

With those feelings, and knowing what she would see, Cho stood in front of the mirror. A woman in lingerie greeted her, but Cho didn't recognise her. The woman had pale skin, as if she had drunk too much muggle alcohol; her mouth stained by the red lipstick she had worn the last night; her hair tangled and without shine. That woman was nothing like Cho had been.

The worst part was that she recognized the sore feeling in her body as the feeling you would get after sex. She was so used to this, so used to waking up alone knowing that last night she had _been_ with someone.

At first she liked the feeling of freedom when she discovered her partner for the night had left; she wasn't one for goodbyes and she really didn't want to see with whom she had got on. What if he wasn't as handsome as the alcohol made him be?

But then the loneliness came, and Cho didn't want that anymore.

She grabbed some underwear, the kind of underwear you put on when you're not _in the mood_, a blue skirt and a black blouse. She then took a shower, being careful to disentangle her hair without magic. She might have been a Ravenclaw, but _beauty magic_ was her weakness and she couldn't even put on eyeliner with her wand.

Dressing quickly after her shower, she looked at herself in the mirror again. This time, she smiled in approval. This was Cho, not the other woman. Deciding to let her hair dry by itself, she charmed her blouse to not to get wet and decided to have a très bon petit déjeuner. She deserved it.

Loudly singing a muggle song by some Welsh girl, she made her way to the small kitchen. She entered the kitchen twirling, feeling like she did when she practiced ballet as a little girl, but in reality she only twirled once on her foot and lost balance, falling over the wooden floor.

"Bloody hell, are you all right?"

Cho turned, scared, towards the voice. She quickly grabbed her wand and pointed it towards the blond stranger in her kitchen.

"Who are you?" she asked, standing up and walking slowly to the guy.

"Woa, put that thing down" he said raising his hands. "I brought coffee, but you were in the shower so I came here to read this strange newspaper" said the guy signaling the Daily Prophet from yesterday.

"By Morgana" said Cho with understanding. "You're a muggle"

The blond guy chuckled a bit and stroked his chin. "You told me that last night too, when I couldn't open the door and you had to stop kissing me to get your wand"

Cho paled at those words. She had unknowingly put in danger the wizard community of Britain last night. What if this guy called the muggle press?

"But hey, don't worry, my parents and I might be muggles, but my aunt was a witch. I know about magic" said the blond guy while walking closer to Cho. "Your singing is awful, by the way"

"You should go before I obliviate you" said Cho while lowering her wand, but still watching him suspiciously. "Thank you for the coffee, but you need to leave"

"Oh, well..."

The man stroked his chin again. He looked strangely disappointed. "I had hoped we could at least have breakfast together. You said you wanted to, last night. I'm sorry. I didn't think you were already drunk when you said that"

The guy went to the perch and grabbed his coat. "It was nice knowing you. Goodbye"

He smiled to her before he closed the door behind him. Cho sat on the nearby chair and took a sip of the coffee before smiling. Espresso. He had guessed right her favorite kind of coffee, when her long-life friends kept on getting her the same vanilla cappuccino coffee they favored.

It was then when it hit Cho. He had stayed, he had brought her the _right_ kind of coffee, he had planned to stay for breakfast because she _invited him_ last night. She hoped it wasn't too late and looked out of the front window.

She quickly located that particular shade of blond hair just two meters and yelled to him.

"Hey, coffee guy!" but he didn't turn back, but a short girl walking with her mom did. Cho bit her lip and considered what she was about to do. "Muggle!"

That got his attention and he turned back, looking for her.

"Up here" she said, only talking a bit loud this time. He looked up to her and smiled.

"Hello, Miss"

Cho smiled and closed her eyes. "I must be crazy, but do you want to have breakfast with me?"

The guy stroked his chin _again_ and Cho surprised herself when she began to find it endearing. "I don't know, will you hex me if I do?"

The laugh in her lips sounded so real, she surprised herself. "I'll hex you if you don't come in here right now"

Looking at each other for a bit, they seemed trapped in their own little world before the guy talked again. "The thing is, I don't want to have breakfast with a woman who _doesn't _remember my name and has to call me _muggle_ to get my attention"

Cho saw his playful eyes and thought for a moment. She _did_ remember those bright blue eyes from last night, and she remembered clearly when he said his name in the middle of a wild dance.

"Would you like to have breakfast with me, Mr. Dudley Dursley?"

The guy, Dudley, smiled even more brightly.

"I'd love to, Miss Chang" he said to her.

Cho hadn't been this excited for many years. She could hear her heartbeat in the short minute and a half that it took him to go up the stairs and knock her door. She opened it and stepped aside to let him in. It was at that moment, that she knew her life wouldn't be the same.

* * *

This is for multiple challenges:

- The 'If you dare' Challenge, with the prompt 189: alone

- The 'Connect the characters' Challenge, with the character Cho Chang

- The 'Flower language' Challenge, with the Iris flower


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